Intel is working on the next iteration of its computer processor codenamed Meteor Lake. These will be the 14th generation of Intel processors to come to market, but perhaps the most interesting thing about them will be the AI-enabled capabilities.

We’re here to explore the evolution of the latest processor, what Intel says they’re capable of and how these features might impact your everyday life.

How Meteor Lake CPUs are different

Intel says that Meteor Lake processors mark “a significant milestone in the evolution” of computing. That’s thanks in part to a “chiplet” system-on-chip (SoC) design which sees Meteor Lake CPUs sporting a built-in Intel Arc Graphics SoC, an integrated AI engine and next-generation power management to boot.

The promise here is to “transform the PC experience” through the power of AI, but more importantly to have power efficiency as a big focus of the new processors.

Meteor Lake will feature a Neural VPU (Vision processing unit) that will give better processing support for the hundreds of apps that already use AI but currently rely on CPU/GPU compute power. The VPU will also work with generative AI experiences (thinkAI image toolsbut running locally) while offering improved power efficiency.

What AI experiences will Meteor Lake support?

There are already a lot of apps that already make use of artificial intelligence that you’re probably using on a daily basis and don’t even realise it.

AI is currently used for all sorts of things including enhancing yourvideo callingexperience withauto-framing, helping maintain eye contact, live background blurring andnoise suppressionand more. That sort of technology is always improving, but with Intel’s Neural VPU it’s about to get even better.

With the technology on Meteor Lake chips, these AI-powered systems will be improved in numerous ways including simply handling simple things like background blurring, people recognition and managing the detail of your hair on calls (for example). Some changes will be subtle and go unnoticed but will improve your everyday life too. Others will be more significant.

How a Neural VPU will improve AI in apps

As we’ve already seen, artificial intelligence is appearing in more places too, both in the cloud and locally as well. Adobe is integratinggenerative AI into Photoshopand there’s an open-source Stable Diffusion Plug-in for GIMP and we’ll see more and more apps with AI as time passes.

Historically these AI tasks use a lot of power, but Intel is promising that Meteor Lake technology will not only make it more capable but much more power efficient too. There will be “more AI capabilities at low power” for things like audio effects (e.g. Dynamic Noise Suppression for Microsoft Teams), video effects and for gaming too.

Intel has been working closely with Microsoft to ensure Meteor Lake supportsDirectMLtoo. That’s Direct Machine Learning which will help with things like image upscaling, anti-aliasing, denoising and super-resolution too. With built-in Arc Graphics technology, Meteor Lake will already supportDirectX 12 Ultimate,Ray Tracingand Intel’sXe Super Sampling (XeSS). The support for artificial intelligence will further improve the gaming experience too.

Intel is also saying that with Meteor Lake developers can look forward to:

Microsoft shared off some of what is possibleduring its Build Event.

When is Meteor Lake coming?

There’s no official word yet on when Meteor Lake processors will be available. However,Intel has saidthat it plans to ship millions of Meteor Lake units in 2023. And the plan is to “put AI accelerated experiences in the hands of hundreds of millions of people” too.

What do Meteor Lake specs look like?

We know that Intel is going for a chiplet SoC design this time around, but there have also been other leaks suggesting certain specs about the Meteor Lake CPUs.

These leaks say that the top-end mobile processor will have 14 cores, with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores. These CPUs will also support both DDR5 and LPDDR5 along with PCIe gen 5. This is no surprise but it is thought that DDR4 support will be removed with this next generation.

The architecture changes mean that the Meteor Lake CPUs will be built on the Intel 4 Process with separate GPU, IO and SoC design. These will likely be crafted by Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC based on Intel’s designs.

Some say that with this new design, Intel is seeking to compete withApple’s M-series processorsby providing everything on one processor. Though Intel’s plan is also to make the processors more efficient.

Of course, all this means that it’s likely that the new CPUs will require a new motherboard socket. The rumours suggest that with the 14th generation processors, Intel will be using LGA 1851 socket instead of LGA 1700. So yes, you will need a new motherboard if you’re planning to upgrade.